Truly, Devious

Renowned Vermont-based private school Ellingham Academy educates the most brilliant artists, innovators, and philosophers. The early 20th-century tycoon Albert Ellingham developed it with the intention of creating a magical destination full with gardens, winding paths, and puzzles. "A location where education becomes a game," he said.

His daughter and wife were taken captive not long after the school started. The sole significant hint was a satirical puzzle that listed many ways to commit murder and was signed with the ominous alias "Truly, Devious." That turned into one of the biggest unsolved murder cases in American history.

As she prepares to start her first year at Ellingham Academy, true-crime enthusiast Stevie Bell has big plans: she's going to solve this cold case. In other words, after she settles into her rigorous new school routine and her roommates—the inventor, the author, the actor, the artist, and the joker—she will solve the case. But an odd thing is taking place. Ellingham Academy is revisited by death, and Truly Devious makes an unexpected comeback. The past has emerged from its crypt. Murder has been acquitted of by someone.

In volumes two and three of the Truly Devious series, Stevie Bell will go on her unrelenting hunt for the murders, and the two intertwined mysteries of this first novel fit together well.

In the first novel in a remarkable new series, New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson spins a delicate narrative of murder and mystery that will appeal to readers of E. Lockhart and Agatha Christie.